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2. Subject Indexing of Research Data in the SocialSciences in Europe – Present Situation (3/5)European Language Social Science Thesaurus (ELSST): Multilingual thesaurus for the social sciences (translated into English,Danish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Norwegian, Spanish andSwedish) Based on the HASSET Thesaurus of UKDA Further developed by CESSDA members Planned: annual release of new version (latest version: 3/2013) Contains about 3,300 internationally applicable concepts extractedfrom HASSET Allows for local extensions of concepts Used for subject indexing of research data by CESSDA membersCologne, May 28 – 31 May │ Baum, Kempf │ IASSIST 2013 │ Thesaurus-Based Indexing of Research Data 6

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2. Subject Indexing of Research Data in the Social Sciencesin Europe – Present Situation (5/5)But: No coherent indexing practice throughout the participatingarchives due to a lack of a binding indexing policy Limited representation of fine-grained national / local issues(e.g. historical, juridical, religious and political aspects, formsof national organizations, educational system, collection-specific aspects …) Retrieval limited to internationally applicable conceptsCologne, May 28 – 31 May │ Baum, Kempf │ IASSIST 2013 │ Thesaurus-Based Indexing of Research Data 8

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3. Thesauri in Subject Indexing (1/3)Some general findings on thesauri: Scope and content of each thesaurus is tightlyconnected to a specific collection => scope and contentof thesauri of the same domain can differ Different levels of abstraction / specificity Different perspectives / classification aspects can lead todifferent semantic relationsCologne, May 28 – 31 May │ Baum, Kempf │ IASSIST 2013 │ Thesaurus-Based Indexing of ResearchData9

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3.2 Thesauri in Subject Indexing - Local Thesauri (3/3)Exclusive use of a local indexing system: Represents scope of local collection Respects local aspects Allows for more precise indexing Easier to maintain Monolingual or multilingual access to local collectionBut: No access to dispersed collections that are indexed withdifferent terminological resourcesCologne, May 28 – 31 May │ Baum, Kempf │ IASSIST 2013 │ Thesaurus-Based Indexing of Research Data 11

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= Aggregate of local thesauri with common, internationallyapplicable core conceptsCore: Contains concepts that exist in any language Hierarchical structure fits all languages Free of bias Concepts that are already part of the local systemscan be mapped to concepts of core system Concepts that are still missing in local systemscan be added4. Recommended Indexing Model (1/3)Cologne, May 28 – 31 May │ Baum, Kempf │ IASSIST 2013 │ Thesaurus-Based Indexing of Research Data 12

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6. Practical Aspects Need for binding indexing guidelines for core terms Data already indexed with local system remain useful User only needs to know one thesaurus Local system represents local collection Indexing with local system guarantees a more preciseindexing and respects local aspects Local systems are easier to maintainCologne, May 28 – 31 May │ Baum, Kempf │ IASSIST 2013 │ Thesaurus-Based Indexing of Research Data 16